Dolfan in NYC

I'm guessing everyone who signed that Harper's letter is sitting at their computer racking their brains writing a response to this!

Yeah, I'm putting the chances of a season happening at about 30%. To tie this in to the previous post... The cynic in me says Snyder knows there's going to be no season and letting the name change happen now, so he gets a year plus cooling off period.

I'm wondering what got cut for them to have to re-air the Bray-Braun match from MitB

ESPN is reporting that Jackson has been fined by the Eagles for "conduct detrimental to the team."

"Crack Addict" is horrifically dated and bad. Limp Bizkit's relevancy was arguably over well before this, but this certainly drove the stake directly into their relevance's heart. And it's an unusual misstep for WWE production to make the final epic showdown's theme between Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock be this. Basically the Rock is done with his WWE career. He's found success in Hollywood and is actively seeking the way out. But the newly empowered WWE audience didn't like that he was leaving, so they let him know about it. One of my absolute favorite promo's in Rock's career came after he'd lost to Brock, when he flat out told the audience... "are you SURE this is what you want" and they continued to boo, so he turned and basically told them they had no one to blame but themselves for this. So the story they're telling is Rock has nothing left to prove to anyone. But himself. He's never beaten Steve Austin at WrestleMania. So, since he gets to be an asshole to everyone now, let's go ahead and challenge that idiot for one last match. Austin, being Austin, is cool with that. It should be noted though, last time it took rampant, ridiculous cheating for Austin to win, so... It should also be noted that Rock always looks like he's having the time of his damned life when he's playing heel. It comes through in his performance as he plays guitar and tells everyone why, specifically, they suck. Alright, it's match time, and Rock comes out with my absolute favorite version of his theme, the slowed down, intense, "I am a fucking star who's better than you, and you WILL wait for me." This is the one from No Way Out, but gets over how fucking awesome this is. No one, but Rock could pull this off. (hmm... maybe Cena) Anyway, so Austin comes down to another huge pop. So the incredible intensity between these two is palpable and they go at it nearly immediately. Rock actually controls a lot more of this match than I remembered, talking WORLDS of shit to Austin the whole time. Absolutely delightful. One interesting piece of dialogue, which I'm positive is Vince just keeping himself over, is Lawler asking JR if he thought Austin was jealous of Rocky's fame, and JR saying "Austin wants to be a wrestler." Well, that's very debatable nowadays. Anyway, Austin is clearly letting Rock lead the dance and letting him do whatever he wants, since this is basically it for him. And by "him", I mean both of them, but more on that later. Rock is basically wrestling a tribute to all of Austin's best matches and it's great. Rock at one point has the damned nerve to put on Austin's vest and I'm just smiling ear to ear because Rock is just so good at heeling. The crowd is basically all standing starting from the moment Austin hits a Rock Bottom on Rocky out of nowhere, a good portion of which bought that as the finish. But, eventually, Rock hits a stunner on Austin, and the crowd is collectively starting to lose their shit. Hell, I know how this turns out and I'm getting excited too. Rock then starts shittalking the crowd, mocking them for chanting Austin, Austin. So SCSA eats another Rock Bottom... for 2. People's Elbow only gets 2. Rock has that "I'm freaking out" look for a second, collects himself and is ready again. He's not going to let Austin free this time. Austin up, Rock's got him... Then, he pauses. When the camera flashes to him, you can see Rock beginning to get emotional. He knows, this moment is the moment of his career. He's finally about to do it. Rock Bottom. 1, 2, 3. Hebner goes to cue Rocky to celebrate, but Rock pushes him away. He and Austin clearly have a very personal moment, in front of 60000 people. Hebner gets pushed away again (god fuck off Earl)... They finish their moment, Rock celebrates. Goes into the crowd to see his family and is clearly crying at this point. It was never announced as a retirement match, but it certainly has all the trappings of one. Austin of course, has his own moment as he leaves the ring. And he's looking as emotional as I've ever seen him. What we didn't know at the time was Austin was done. This was not, as most people assumed, Rock's retirement match... it was Austin's. And for him, and Rock, that was a hell of a way to go out. End of Day 57.

I was just discussing this with my partner and we both agree... It's not someone having Covid... It's someone dying from it. Doesn't matter who.

Honestly they should be furloughed. But things are fine... This will age well.

Nashville has officially withdrawn. They've adjusted it now to move Chicago to Group B and have redone the schedule. All groups now have 4 teams.

I really, really wonder how delicately they're going to walk around the Prince Andrew stuff... Hoo doggy.

As said in the CFB thread, the Ivy League has cancelled all fall sports. In the statement, they say no sports before 1/1/21, which obviously cuts about a month or two out of CBB. So, that's something everyone should keep their eyes on.

Since I just did the review for this in my other thread: Hey, if the boss is willing to bleed, you better be too.

DAY 57 Hulk Hogan has enjoyed the last year doing a comeback/farewell tour. Vince even gave him one final run as WWE Champion! The nostalgia run was going well, and then Hollywood Rock showed up and challenged Hogan to a match at No Way Out. McMahon interfered (via ref/wrestler Sylvain Grenier) and Hogan lost. They'd spend the next month arguing over who created Hulkamania, and the correct answer is, of course, the WWF marketing team. The argument boils over, they challenge each other to a match at WrestleMania, and Vince *STABS HOGAN REPEATEDLY WITH A PEN*. Vince getting away with attempted murder is probably where POTUS got his infamous '5th Avenue' thought. Oh boy, the sideways version of "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" is absolutely awful. It's so blatant that they cannot get around Hogan doing the "chop it down with the edge of my hand". It can't cost THAT much to get the rights to a 50 year old song can it? Hogan's soaking in what would be his final entrance to WrestleMania as a wrestler and I can't say I blame him. Vince must have found some wonder steroid because despite being 10 years older, he's noticeably bigger than Hulk is. Now obviously this isn't going to be a technical classic. BUT... well, this is what I'm imagining a brawl between 2 old men who have drunk way too many whiskeys at 3am. Credit to both of them for essentially working in their limits. Both guys blade pretty well after post and chair shots. Vince, in particular, takes an unprotected chair shot that gives him the chance to bleed like a stuck pig (or however that saying goes). I actually noted the oddness of the chairshot, because while it's unprotected, Hogan did a very good job of not following through on the swing. It's like, he placed the chair on Vince's head and it bounced off. Oh, since I forgot to mention it before, this is a No DQ Street Fight. And a local hobo who claimed to be Rowdy Roddy Piper wanders into the ring and teased that he was going to crack Vince over the head with it. However, Piper was overexcited and gave away he hated Hogan too (because he spat on him too). So, yes, the 18 year revenge plot is finally fulfilled, and Piper brains Hogan with the pipe. However that only gets 2. Vince gets the pipe and ref Brian Hebner tries to take it away from him... in a Street Fight. So Vince tries to throw him over the top, but Brian fucks up the spot in an ugly way. (I'm guessing that was brought up when the Hebners were all fired a couple of years later.) This brings out Grenier. Hogan beats him down, boots Vince, and THREE leg drops, and that is it. The match is silly crazy fun and way better than it has any right to be. Not surprising considering both guys are absolute masters of the craft and know what will make a good match, and how to work within a certain set of parameters. I just wish, honestly, that they were both better people. I really, really want to like Hulk Hogan. Actually no, I like Hulk Hogan. The guy I don't like is Terry Bollea. I honestly hope he's reflected on the mistakes he's made, and has come out a better person for it.